'Devastated' Graham must now concentrate on Olympics

By Michael CowleyJuly 7 2003

Australian swimming star Elka Graham was "hit by a sledgehammer" with the news she was ruled out of the Dolphins team to compete at the world championships in Barcelona, according to her manager David Flaskas.

Flaskas was speaking from Sydney Airport yesterday, where he had hoped to bid farewell to Graham, as the swimmers headed for their pre-championship training camp in Sindelfingen, Germany. But a specialist's report received by Australian Swimming Inc on Friday ruled that Graham was not ready to make the trip to the world titles.

Graham, 21, spent a week in Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital early last month after she fainted following a morning training session. She was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and low blood pressure, had nine major tests during that week before being released and heading back into the water to prepare for Barcelona.

She was due to contest the 200 metres and 400m freestyle in Spain, having won both events at the selection trials in March, and also would have been a key member of the 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m freestyle relays.

"The news hit Elka like a sledgehammer," Flaskas said. "The last few weeks have been pretty tough for her.");document.write("

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"I think there's two issues here. Obviously she got over the scary part of the virus which was knocking her about, and they [she and her coach] thought everything was back on track, but . . . you're always going to go on the side of caution when you're dealing with matters relating to the heart.

"She was very confident going into this, and that makes the decision all the more difficult for her to deal with. It's almost a grieving process. But the decision was made for her own wellbeing."

National High Performance Director Greg Hodge also spoke to Graham, and conceded she was devastated by the news.

He said her coach Brian Sutton would be staying in Sydney until Tuesday to help put together a program for Graham to help her manage her problems.

Hodge added that suggestions Graham's life could be in danger were incorrect.

"What Brian and Elka have to do is to stabilise the blood pressure," he said.

"It's not really a heart problem, it's a blood pressure problem.

Of the risk of death, Hodge said: "Initially that was quite a concern. But they have pretty much ruled out all of those things now.

"It's more the question of managing this variable blood pressure and heart rate.

"She is a super-fit athlete. When they did a treadmill test her heart rate dropped from 185 to 103 in 20 seconds.

"Now when your heart rate comes down like that and your blood pressure doesn't come down with it equivalently, then you have some difficulties.

"She's pretty upset but the Olympics is her goal. The report is not talking about her not being able to swim in the future or anything like that. The main game is next year. Hopefully that will be the picture that she will see."